My daughter has an elderly (> 2 years) rat who generally seems to be in good health but his urine is very red.

A couple of months ago, we noticed it was slightly pink. Otherwise he seemed fine so we didn't worry about it. About a month ago it started to get darker until it is now unquestionably red not pink. Around the same time he started to look under the weather so we took him to the vet who prescribed a course of Baytril (which is what they do no matter what appears to be wrong with our rats). I don't know whether this was because of the Baytril but he quickly perked up and for the last few weeks has seemed perfectly OK except his urine is still really red.

He is eating, drinking and urinating normally. He is perfectly lively and doesn't seem to be distressed but we are worried about him - urine should clearly not be that colour.

I don't have a great deal of faith that our vet will have anything to say except more Baytril.

I think vets are legally obliged to try baytril first because it's the only antibiotic registered for use in pet rats, but there are many others that would be more appropriate. I would speak to your vet about trying something else (preferably septrin), and if they are reluctant then look around for another vet.

There is a risk with a longterm UTI that it can spread and rats can become very ill, so it does need to be cleared up.

I'll go back to the vet and if I don't get anywhere, I'll try another. Unfortunately, none of the vets in the area seems to have more than a passing knowledge of rats but I suspect that's true in most places - rats aren't exactly common pets.

Best of luck We were in the same boat as you when we first started keeping rats and had a vet who refused point blank to prescribe *anything* else; that was bad enough but I think the the worst part was the complete indifference they showed to learning more. We moved to a new practice that had just opened, (thinking that at least the vets couldn't be worse!) and haven't looked back since.

I think one of the most important things in a vet is their willingness to try different things where appropriate, and their ability to admit that sometimes they don't know, but they will go away, research and get back to you.

Did your vet do any urine tests at all? If not, if you put him in a clean, dry carrier with no substrate, he should produce a sample sooner or later. I've been told that if you wake him up and haul him out of bed he's more likely to cooperate, since he hopefully won't have toileted yet. And then if you have a syringe you can syringe up the result and bring it with you to the vet.

Incidentally, how much Baytril were you prescribed and for how long? And how much does the patient weigh? Too little or too short a course is not uncommon with antibiotics, so it's possible that the Baytril didn't clear things up because there just wasn't enough of it.

ElizabethW wrote:I think one of the most important things in a vet is their willingness to try different things where appropriate, and their ability to admit that sometimes they don't know, but they will go away, research and get back to you.

I agree; being willing to discuss things openly and respectfully with the patient/client, and being willing to try are pretty crucial qualities in a vet. (Or any medical professional.) Knowledge can be added to later but basic attitude and bedside manner are fundamental. And weirdly, I've found that some vets (who I hope are keen to help their usual dog and cat patients) can be very dismissive of rodents. I mean, I'm paying you to help them, and the more you'd be willing to do, the more you can charge me, but apparently not...